Durrant Pate/Contributor

Opposition Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson is in the firing line of FirstRock Real Estate Investment, which has threatened to sue him if he fails to fulfil certain requirements set out by the publicly listed company.

In citing Robinson for making a false and defamatory social media post on June 4, 2025, titled ‘First Rock concerns’ which has caused significant harm to the company’s reputation, FirstRock through its attorney Jalil S Dabdoub has outlined three condition, which if met, would seek to remedy the false and malicious post by the Opposition Spokesman.

In his letter to Robinson, Dabdoub from the law firm Dabdoub, Dabdoub and Company is demanding that Robinson immediately agree to the following:

• Air a prominent, full and unqualified apology in a manner and on terms to be agreed
• Undertake not to repeat the defamation complained of by our clients
• Pay to our clients a substantial sum of money to be agreed as for damages for defamation in an attempt to adequately compensate them for the grave damage suffered by them as a result of the defamatory statements contained in your news report

The law firm said the statements by Robinson are categorically false.

“Our client has not been placed in receivership by Sagicor, nor is there any indication that taxpayer funds are at risk due to investments in FirstRock. The statements and references to FirstRock are defamatory in that they impute to our clients, inter alia:

• Taxpayers’ money is at risk due to investments in First Rock,
• Is financially mismanaged,
• Is not financially viable,
• Practices poor financial prudence,
• Has negligent and incompetent leadership,
• Has weak corporate governance and weak board oversight,
• Engages in reckless risk-taking with investor funds,
• Has lost market viability; and 
• Is a failed business.”

The attorney said his client is a well-known company in Jamaica and is well respected, enjoying an impeccable reputation for dynamic and innovative real estate investments led by a young well respected and vibrant team, describing the post as, “dishonest, inaccurate and contrary to the facts, which are known and available to you and is therefore done maliciously with the intention of bringing our client into disrepute, causing it to suffer damage to their good reputation and damage in their business dealings and investments”.

Post caused reputational damage

According to the law firm, notwithstanding Robinson’s “unilateral apology and retraction,” the post has “caused, and continues to cause, significant embarrassment and reputational damage to our client. These statements were made maliciously, and were either known by you to be false or could easily have been determined to be untrue through the most basic inquiry. The statements were calculated by you to bring political gain to you and your political party at our client’s expense.”

Continuing, the law firm wrote, “the resulting harm is not merely reputational but is materially affecting our client’s commercial interests, both locally and internationally, including the disruption of existing business relationships and the loss of potential opportunities”.

The law firm claims the deliberate and malicious defamatory statements by Robinson, “are calculated to bring political benefit to yourself and have caused serious and lasting damage reflecting as they do on our client’s image, reputation, corporate responsibility, integrity, honesty and competence”.

Dabdoub says his client is, “entitled to substantial damages for defamation, including aggravated damages, particularly since you failed to check the facts before publication, and you aired the defamatory statements at a time when you knew them to be untrue and in a manner designed to present them in an unfavourable manner to the public in general and your viewers in particular.”